State Fire Academy                   

Pearl, Mississippi

The Educational Fire Training Facility houses a 60 recruit dormitory, truckbay for six firetrucks, and an office/classroom/FEMA saferoom building. The Project provides student firefighters realistic opportunities to experience turn-out into a realistic fire station, then progressing from firehouse to firefighting/rescue mockups on the State Fire Academy campus.

Positioned on a tight, steep site, the buildings and hardscapes dovetail within existing site boundaries, an existing dormitory, campus access loop, railroad rescue prop, and rescue operations lake. A dorm wing, contiguous with the truckbay to accommodate turn-out drills to trucks, and a standalone supporting classroom and office building, comprise the plan. The dorm ties to the truckbay via common lobby, dayroom, and support functions; classrooms connect to the truckbay with a thin steel plate canopy, defining, with the dorm lobby, an intimate courtyard. Adrenaline-filled nighttime rescues are expressed through the architecture:  levitating cantilevers of building masses and planes; hovering connecting catwalks and bridges; soaring canopies; dramatic forms and shadowing; and a variety of carefully-placed views to the rescue lake. Balancing these dramatic moments are subtle studies of everyday materials —  brick, steel, glass, and metal panels  — interfaced with careful detailing:  metal paneled lightwells/canopies pass along east side of the interior courtyard enroute to dorm lobby entrance; lobbies richly punctuate with form and expressed material; a densely-patterned brick façade holds a north wall, creating the south edge of the courtyard; and patterned punched openings hold an expansive west elevation, divided and proportioned by the courtyard and its flanking sculptural solid/void relationships.

Construction Cost:  $10,200,000.00

Area:  28,942 GSF

Completed 2023